Prep Rally

Prep hoops coach proposes to girlfriend with elaborate team and student dance

A high school basketball game in Iowa proved to be just a sidenote to a love story when a prep basketball coach used his players and a handful of other students from the school to propose to his longtime girlfriend.

The coach in the video above -- which went viral on Reddit on Wednesday evening -- is Clinton (Ia.) Central DeWitt High sophomore boys basketball coach Brandon Barnhart. All the players in the basketball jerseys are on Barnhart's roster. Naturally, they weren't enough to put on a full-court sing off, so Barnhart enlisted a handful of other Central DeWitt students to choreograph a simple dance to a Bruno Mars hit.

Of course, it didn't take Barnhart's girlfriend, who is identified only as Hannah, long to figure out what was happening (well, it took right up to the first chorus, when "I think I wanna marry you," hit the speakers). Still, after initial embarrassment she was able to pull herself together, drink in the entire scene, applaud a pretty impressive rendition of the worm and collect a dozen roses from the sophomore hoops squad after a variety of pirouettes.

The rest of the scene played out exactly as one would expect, with Barnhart strolling down the mid-court line between two phalanxes of teenagers, then dropping to a knee in front of Hannah and asking for her hand. The emotional acceptance had tears, a warm embrace, a nice kiss and then plenty of applause as the future Mr. and Mrs. Barnhart led a two-by-two procession of the sophomore basketball team back through a tunnel of Central DeWitt students.

Barnhart's proposal isn't the first to involve a high school sporting event, but it certainly is one of the more involved, particularly considering the fact that he then had to go coach a basketball team. For that matter, his squad had to compete in a game after staging an emotional scene.

Then again, years from now neither Barnhart or his players are likely to remember too much about the game that followed. Odds are they won't forget the pregame proposal.

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